Ajit slams Maha ruling alliance, Fadnavis for 'poor' law and order

Aurangabad, PTI

Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar on Saturday asked the Eknath Shindeled Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party to concentrate on governing Maharashtra properly rather than indulging in one-upmanship.

His comments came against the backdrop of the acrimony between the two ruling parties after an advertisement in several state dailies on Tuesday informed that Shinde was more popular as per a survey than his deputy and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis.

Atrocities and crimes against women as well as communal incidents were on the rise in the state, while the police force, which is under Fadnavis who holds the Home portfolio, was unable to maintain law and order, Pawar said in a press conference here. Queried on NCP working president Supriya Sule calling him the "Amitabh Bachchan" of Maharashtra politics, Pawar said the Baramati Lok Sabha MP may have said because she was his sister.

"You need not pay much attention to this remark. Have I ever acted like an angry young man (the portrayal of which in several films made Bachchan a film legend). If I had then people of Baramati would not have elected me so many times. In 2019, I won with a record margin of 1.65 lakh," he said.

Speaking on friction between the Eknath Shinde faction and the BJP, Pawar pointed out to a poster that has come up in Nanded, images of which have gone viral on social media.

"In the poster put up by a BJP functionary, there is reference of pachchaas khokhe (Rs 50 crore) and 105 doke (referring to 105 BJP MLAs).